Panel expands sanctuaries off county coast

Plan would nearly double areas that ban or limit fishing

OVERVIEW

Background: A 1999 state law requires California's network of marine protected areas to be redesigned.

What's changing: A state Blue Ribbon Task Force yesterday selected its preferred remapping proposal for Southern California, which includes new bans or restrictions on fishing off La Jolla and other spots in San Diego County.

What's next: The state Fish and Game Commission will meet Dec. 9 in Los Angeles to consider the task force's recommendation. It's not expected to finalize the redesign for several months.

For maps and other information about the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, go to dfg.ca.gov/mlpa

A state panel unanimously embraced new and expanded marine sanctuaries off south La Jolla, Encinitas, Imperial Beach and other county spots yesterday in its bid to safeguard sea life along the coast.

Meeting in Los Angeles, the five-member Blue Ribbon Task Force issued a landmark recommendation to the state's Fish and Game Commission, which is expected to make its final determination next summer or fall. Conservationists and fishing advocates still hope to influence the commission, which relied heavily on the task force in its recent remapping of sanctuaries along the north central coast.

At this stage, the task force wants to roughly double the 182 square miles of existing marine protected areas off Southern California that ban or limit fishing and other seafood harvesting. The newly proposed zones are based on size and spacing standards developed by scientists to increase the likelihood they will benefit a variety of species. They were crafted to minimize the effects on military and recreational boating activities.

The final ruling will affect virtually everybody who fishes along the coast, eats local seafood or enjoys the biological bounty of California's waters. Economic analysis shows the San Diego and Oceanside harbors will suffer revenue losses in the short term, though environmentalists said everyone eventually will benefit from having more fish, lobster, sea urchins and other financially valuable species.

“We are doing something really unprecedented,” said Meg Caldwell, a blue ribbon panel member from Stanford Law School. “This is not just for ourselves and all the various users . . . but for communities that have lived with and lived in these systems for thousands of years and for future generations as well.”

Compromise was an elusive goal during the past year of negotiations among dozens of interest groups, reflected in the impassioned speeches made at yesterday's hearing.

“It's not perfect, but it's something we hope we can live with,” said Catherine Reheis-Boyd, chairwoman of the panel and a top official at the Western States Petroleum Association in Sacramento.

Anglers voiced disappointment about the likely loss of some prized fishing grounds, said Wendy Tochihara, a member of the stakeholder group who represented a fishing-line company in Paramount.

“It hurts us really bad,” she said. “It's just unfathomable that they could just blatantly disregard the socioeconomics in some of these areas.”

Tochihara said she hasn't given up hope for averting a few closures. “I am going to do my best to talk to the Fish and Game Commission and state our case,” she said.

The proposed zone off south La Jolla sparked some of the most intense debate of any spot in Southern California, which stretches from Point Conception in Santa Barbara County to the U.S.-Mexico border. The region is filled with interest groups using its waters in different ways, making it the most difficult part of the state in which to redraw marine sanctuaries.

Shouting and shoving in the audience briefly disrupted yesterday's hearing as the panel discussed a no-take zone that stretched from south La Jolla to Pacific Beach near Crystal Pier. The task force still went for a sanctuary there but settled on one that's smaller than scientists' minimum guidelines.

“We are making some very significant concessions in the name of socioeconomics,” Caldwell, the panel member, said. “We are going to have to monitor these and see if they are able to perform.”

Fishermen said imposing more bans and restrictions off La Jolla and Encinitas would squish them into smaller areas and lead to dangerous run-ins between divers, passenger fishing vessels and others.

“My biggest concern is compaction,” said Paul Lebowitz, director of the Kayak Fishing Association of California.

Environmentalists generally supported the panel's strategy for south La Jolla, an area widely considered an ecological gem because of its kelp and rocky reef habitat. It's home to grunion, garibaldi, black sea bass and many other fish species.

“I'm glad the task force recognized the economic and environmental value of protecting iconic places, but we would have liked to see more protections for south La Jolla's kelp forest,” said Kate Hanley from San Diego Coastkeeper, a member of the regional stakeholder group that helped fashion proposals for the blue ribbon panel.

Neither she nor other conservationists considered the package a clear win for their side.

“This ocean protection plan is certainly a step in the right direction, but there is still room for improvement,” said Greg Helms of the Ocean Conservancy, another person in the stakeholder group.

Yesterday's decision stemmed from the Marine Life Protection Act, a 1999 state law that mandated redrawing the map of California's offshore sanctuaries.

Many of the state's prized habitat spots are heavily used by commercial and recreational fishermen, making the remapping process divisive from the start. Fishermen largely are skeptical about the ability of more and expanded marine protected areas to significantly improve the health of fisheries.

The blue ribbon panel was expected to make its South Coast selection Oct. 22, but it deferred a decision to assess more options.

Besides the higher-profile La Jolla debate, the task force recommended creating a marine sanctuary off Imperial Beach to preserve a kelp bed, cobble reef and other habitat features that together form a spawning area for barred sand bass.

Outside San Diego County, the main areas of controversy in Southern California were off Malibu's Point Dume, Palos Verdes and Laguna Beach.

Southern California is the third of five areas to be remapped along the state's 1,100-mile coastline, after the Central and North Central regions. Revamping of the whole network should be finished by 2012.